


Run Boy Run

by icyinferno



Series: Shingeki no Dumpster Diving [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AKA why I shouldn't be allowed to listen to music and daydream of ways to make these children suffer, Attack on Titan AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-29
Packaged: 2018-01-19 13:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1471714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icyinferno/pseuds/icyinferno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren just wanted his macaroni, he didn't ask for this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fall of a Childhood

The sweet, sweet smell of dinner wafted from the bright little oven. Eren sat perched on his knees like a vulture, staring intently at the macaroni and cheese casserole that was his soon to be meal. His mother stood to his right, washing the mixing bowls and handing them to Mikasa, who stood at the ready with a towel. A little blond boy sat on a chair, kicking his legs that were too short to actually reach the floor. Everyone worked in content silence until a loud, obnoxious gurgling erupted from Eren's stomach. 

"Hungry, are we?" Carla smiled down at her son.

"Maybe if he'd actually eat his lunch in school, this wouldn't be a regular occurrence," Mikasa gave her adoptive brother an accusing side glare. 

"Eren, I thought you liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," his mother worried. 

"Actually, Mrs. Jaeger, he gave it to me." 

"Armin!" Eren yelled, springing up from his crouch, "You weren't supposed to say anything!" 

Armin looked down at his hands, twisting them together, nervously. 

"Oh, sweetie," Carla dried her hands on her skirt and abandoned the dishes to comfort the little boy, "did your grandfather freak out again?" 

Armin shook his head, still staring at his hands. 

"Some jerks were beating up on him again, so I fought 'em off," Eren jumped around, reenacting his fight, complete with sound effects. Mikasa rolled her eyes at the boy's antics. "And then they said 'l'll get you, ya little brat!' And I said 'Yeah? You and what army?' And then they surrounded me and were about to beat up me and Armin but then they ran away 'cause I was too scary for them," Eren beamed up at his mother after finishing his story. 

Carla raised an eyebrow. She knew her son very well, and scary wasn't usually a word she'd use to describe the boy. There were a few instances in which that wasn't true, but for the most part, Eren was a very much like a small dog that thought himself large and scary. Like a chihuahua. She glanced at Mikasa, who shrugged a little and smirked into her scarf. Carla sighed, suddenly understanding the whole situation. Eren may be chihuahua, but Mikasa was a whole other story. She loved her daughter with all of her heart, but when that child meant business, no one dared stand in her way. 

"You didn't have to fight for me," Armin said quietly, "It's not a big deal. I'm used to it." 

"Absolutely not!" Eren, Mikasa, and Carla all spoke at once. Carla knelt down in front of the little blond boy she had all but adopted. "Armin, if someone is hurting you, that is not okay and you have every right to fight back." Carla wasn't stupid, she remembered being picked on as a child and knew that 'just ignoring it' did nothing but dehumanize you. She had drilled into her children that you had to stand your own against the people who would hurt you, or you'd be hurt until you could no longer stand it. 

"But he won't fight back!" Eren sighed in exasperation. 

"So we do," Mikasa said, softly, "We make sure they won't hurt Armin ever again." 

Armin sat curled up in the wooden chair, clearly uncomfortable. 

Carla smoothed his hair away from his face, checking for bruises. Thankfully, the boy didn't seem to be physically injured. Carla planted a motherly kiss on his forehead. "If those bullies come after you again, you have my permission to kick their asses, but ONLY" she stopped and looked at her other two children, "if they come after you. Got it?" 

All three ten year-olds nodded. Carla stood up, satisfied that her kids weren't about to unnecessarily put anyone in the ER. She turned as she heard the sound of the door opening. "That’ll be Daddy!" She left the kitchen to go greet her husband. 

The children looked uncomfortably at each other. Not only was it incredibly weird to have their mother figure refer to her husband as "daddy" because for crying out loud they were not four years old, but also because there had been an air of unease around him. 

"Dad has been acting weird lately," Eren whispered. 

"I know, something has felt really off about him for a few weeks now," Mikasa agreed, a worried expression etched across her face. 

"I um, I kind of packed an emergency bag for everyone. Like mine, just in case." Armin's emergency bag was filled with extra clothes, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a sleeping bag, and other assorted items that could be useful if his grandfather didn't recognize him and refused to let him into the house. 

"It won't come to that," Eren gulped, "hopefully, anyway, but that doesn't mean having the bags isn't a good idea. Thanks, Armin." 

Mikasa bit her lower lip, deep in thought. If the eternally reckless Eren was worried enough that he thought having an emergency runaway bag was a good idea, something was very, very wrong. The three sat in a tense silence for a little while, until a piercing scream echoed throughout the house. 

"MOM!" Eren screamed. He dashed to the doorway, but was forced to a halt by Grisha Jaeger's imposing form standing in the way. 

Mikasa stiffened. The last time she had seen someone with that expression, her parents had died. Eren stared at his father in shock, not understanding what the hell was going on. Doctor Jaeger pulled out a needle and advanced toward his son, grabbing the child''s arm and plunging the needle into the soft flesh of the boy's deltoids. Eren seized up then collapsed in a heap on the ground, unmoving. 

Mikasa sprang into action. Grabbing a sauce pan left on the stove to dry, she swung the pan at her adoptive father's kneecaps. The pan and bone collided with a sickening thwack and Grisha sank to his knees. Armin saw his opportunity to escape, and he ran like hell out of the kitchen. Mikasa stood protectively over her brother, the pan raised and ready to deal more destruction than a ten year old should be able to do with a kitchen utensil. 

Grisha looked at her with tired, blank eyes. "Mikasa," he warned, "stand down." 

"With all due respect, sir-" 

"Mikasa." 

"Fuck no." 

Eren stirred behind her, and she glanced down at him. Grisha lunged at her, grabbing for the pan. Mikasa dropped to the ground to avoid him, then rolled to the left. She leaped into the air and delivered a terrifyingly strong blow to the back of the man's head. As he collapsed, Armin screamed. She looked up and saw him holding three backpacks, staring in horror at the bleeding mess that she supposed was body of Carla Jaeger. 

She looked to Eren and saw that he had regained enough of his senses to be able to stand. Grabbing his arm, she yanked him over the prone figure of his father and over to Armin. She took two of the backpacks, and hurriedly unlocked the door. The three children ran as fast as they could away from the house, not looking back. 

'It happened again,' Mikasa thought to herself, 'But at least this time I'm not alone.'


	2. That Awful Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa is not paid enough for this.

A week and a half after he and his friends had run away, Armin found himself looking up at a Wendy’s dumpster on a Saturday morning when he should be at home, in his pajamas, listening to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on NPR. His shoulders slumped in defeat and he breathed a melancholy sigh as Eren’s shaggy brown head popped out of the dumpster, and he tossed some half eaten burgers at his two companions. Armin could only watch as they soared through the air in an almost graceful arc before landing with a wet thump on Mikasa’s head.

The girl plucked a string of soggy lettuce from her long hair and glared at Eren.

"Watch it," she growled.

"You’re filthy anyway," Eren snapped.

Armin sighed again as Mikasa pulled Eren out of the dumpster and started berating him. Eren had been really on edge since they had made a break for it and as Armin had learned, if Eren wasn’t happy, no one was happy. Not that any of them were happy anymore. Armin wasn’t a psychologist by any means but he was sure that what they had all gone through was enough to mess them up royally.

_'A psychologist. I could have been a psychologist. Of course now that we've run away, we're no longer in school. Which means that I won't get an education. I can't get into college without an education. I can't get a degree or a job or anything who's going to hire a fourth grade dropout? No one, that's who. I'm doomed. I'm doomed to a life of running away from everything and eating things that can barely be called food for the rest of my life.'_

"You’re being an idiot. Just eat your burger."

_'Ha, burger. It's not food anymore it's an anthropology experiment. Someone asked themselves whether or not a Wendy's hamburger left unattended and exposed to the elements could sustain life. And then we came along. We are obstructing the advancement of science. We are bad people.'_

"I’m not hungry."

"You’re a piss poor liar that’s what you are."

"Damn it Mikasa, I’m not going to eat just leave me alo-"

Armin tuned back into reality to see Mikasa stuffing a hamburger into Eren’s mouth.

"So help me God I will make you eat and stay alive even if it kills me!" Mikasa turned to Armin, fire in her eyes. Armin gulped, nervously, as the angry girl stalked over to him. Armin closed his eyes and braced himself for whatever was to come.

"Open your eyes."

He complied and came face to face with fries and an almost decent looking chicken sandwich.

"Eat."

"O-okay," he whispered. _'We are bad, bad,slightly less hungry people.'_

 

Mikasa refused to fall asleep. She absolutely would not give in to the exhaustion that pummeled her from all directions. She wanted nothing more than to lie down, close her eyes, snuggle up under her fluffy blanket, the one with the kittens, and black out. She wanted to wake up hours, if not days, later to her mother’s sweet voice and gentle kiss on he forehead. Or Eren jumping up and down on the foot of her bed screaming “Wake up, our cartoons are on! Wake up, wake up!”

The corners of her lips curved upward as she fondly remembered the Saturday tradition. She looked down the alley at Eren, who was still sulking from their fight, and to Armin, who was curled up in a little ball beside her, shaking just slightly.

Her little smile slid from her face as reality hit her full force. There would never be a mother to lovingly wake her up, Eren would never look so excited in the morning, none of that would ever happen again. The three of them were alone in a world full of people trying to hurt them or capture them. All they had was each other and right now, even that was in jeopardy. 

_'No.'_

Mikasa grabbed Armin’s hand and dragged him down to where Eren sat. Sitting the blond boy down, she plopped herself in between them. Unwinding her scarf, she pulled her friends close to her and wrapped her scarf around them. Even though it was warm outside, they were cold. The kind of cold that starts from deep inside and spirals out until everywhere is shivering and feels like it will never be warm again.

Mikasa was no stranger to this cold. It had been her closest companion on the day her parents were killed. She was cold and she had no home to return to that day. On this day all three of them were cold and had no home to return to. That day, Eren had wrapped a scarf around her head and drove away the cold. This day, she would return the favor.

"Mikasa," Eren muttered, weakly.

She silently pulled him into a hug. Eren could be a jerk, but he was her jerk and nothing could ever change that.

Eren curled up into her side. “Mikasa, what are we going to do?”

"I don’t know," the girl admitted, "but we’re going to do it together. We’ll be okay as long as we’re together."

Mikasa felt Armin huddle closer to her.

"But we’re just kids," the blond boy worried.

"We’re kids with a body count. I think we’ll be alright."

'We're probably doomed, actually.'

"If we live, we win-"

"And we can’t win if we don’t fight," Eren finished for her.

_'I'll die before I let either of you down.'_

Mikasa smiled.

"We can make it through this."

 

Three weeks of sleeping under bridges, in alleys, and behind whatever they could find to give them shelter had really taken its toll on Eren. He hadn’t blown up again, he hadn’t felt much of anything at all. Armin said that he was probably in some sort of delayed shock but Armin was ten what did he know. Eren pulled his sleeping bag over his head, too tired to even think about what he was or was not feeling.

He felt a finger pressing into his head, signalling that he needed to stop playing burrito boy and get up. Grudgingly, he poked his head out to see who had dared to awake him.

"Wake up, Eren, come out of your chrysalis, " Armin continued to poke Eren in the face.

“‘I’m going to hit you in about three seconds.”

Armin scurried away to hide behind Mikasa’s skirt. “You wake him up next time.”

Mikasa just rolled her eyes.

Eren crawled out of his burrito, _because it was a burrito not a cocoon thank you very much,_ and shoved everything into his bag.

Armin helped him with his few belongings, and Eren pretended that it was Armin’s way of making up for the butterfly comment.

Just as the children had exited the alley they were no longer going to call home, a patrolling police car rounded the corner.

"Pretend we’re not homeless runaways," Mikasa ordered.

Eren looked at his friends. They were three dirty, little children who looked like they had seen far too much for their age. Which was true. It also looked like they had the worst poker faces in the world. Which was also true.

"No I think we might be screwed."

The police car stopped in front of them.

Armin started shaking, so Eren grabbed his hand and stood protectively in front of the quivering boy.

The car door opened and a cop much larger than the children stepped out. “You kids should be getting ready for school,” he said.

The three children glanced at each other. “We were just on our way, sir,” Eren said, praying the officer would believe him.

"Do you kids think I’m stupid?"

Crap.

Armin spoke up. “N-no sir! We were just on our way to school w-when I saw this dog stuck in the gutter and we had to rescue her. That’s why we’re dirty and running late, s-sir!”

"Yeah, officer, we were being good Samaritans," Mikasa piped in.

The officer didn’t look impressed. “Uh huh. How about you three come with me to the station and we call your parents.”

"But we’ll be late for class!" Armin cried.

"In the car."

Mikasa shook her head, slightly, signalling that the game was over. Eren tensed himself to fight, but Armin latched onto his sleeve and held him back.

"He has a taser," the blond boy whispered.

"In the car. Now."

"Yes, sir," Mikasa pulled her two boys to the car.

"Armin," Eren hissed, "please tell me you have a plan to get us out of this."

Armin gulped. “Uhm… working on it…”

Eren squirmed in his seat belt. This was bad, really bad. They would probably be taken back to his dad and oh god they couldn’t go back to Dad.

The police officer glanced back at the three children, making sure they stayed in line. It took all of Eren’s willpower not to make the officer’s life hell while he still could.

"Um, sir?" Armin squeaked, "Why are we being taken in? We didn’t do anything wrong."

"Kid, running away is a status offense. I’m taking you to the station and either we call your parents or we put you in the system. That’s the way it works."

"No, you can’t split us up!" Eren cried out, "We have to stick together, we’re all we have left!"

Mikasa grabbed Eren’s hand, reassuringly.

"Sir, we ran away for very good reasons, perhaps there’s something you could do?" Eren could see the gears in Armin’s head turning faster and faster.

The officer braked the car and turned around to look Armin in the eye. “Look, kid…”

Mikasa unbuckled everyone’s seat belts and kicked the door open. Throwing Eren and Armin out of the car, she aimed another kick at the officer, sending him reeling back. She jumped from the car and bolted off after the boys.

"Mika, what the hell was that?" Eren panted as he ran.

"No clue, just run!"

Eren shot a look behind him, then sprinted faster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh look, an update

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first big fic so feedback would be greatly appreciated!!


End file.
